Chess Ladies : Anna Ushenina

Anna Ushenina (born August 30, 1985 in Kharkov) is a Ukrainian chess player with the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM).

Biography

Born in Kharkov, she still lives there with her family. It was her mother who introduced her to chess at the age of seven, along with painting and music, being determined that the young Ushenina would develop intellectual and creative talents.[1]Her earliest chess results were remarkable; consistently winning events in her age group and beyond, culminating in becoming the Ukrainian Girls' (under 20) champion at just 15 years. Many of her chess skills have been self-taught, although there was some coaching at a specialist facility in Kramatorsk. Even today she often works without a trainer but is, at the same time, critical of the lack of support for chess in the Ukraine. Other countries such as China offer concessions and generous stipends to their top players.

[edit] National success

At the national Ukrainian Women's Championship, her progress and achievements have been noteworthy. In 2003 (Nikolaev) and 2004 (Alushta), she finished in fourth and sixth places respectively, thereafter becoming the champion at Alushta in 2005, and outperforming top seed Tatjana Vasilevich along the way. She almost repeated the success at Odessa in 2006, finishing second, but ahead of the higher rated Natalia Zhukova and Inna Gaponenko.[2]At these combined (men and women) events, she has defeated male grandmasters of the calibre of Anton Korobov and Oleg Romanishin and in the Ukraine was endowed with the title Honored Master of Sports.

[edit] Exceptional team performances

Her many successes in team chess reached an early pinnacle in 2006. At the Turin Women's Olympiad she was a part of the victorious Ukrainian team and remained undefeated throughout the contest. Ushenina and her compatriots Natalia Zhukova (also undefeated), Kateryna Lahno and Inna Gaponenko each scored between 70-80%, in what was a commanding performance, earning them team gold medals and much adulation in chess circles.[3]

For Ushenina, her earliest major medal-winning performance occurred in Balatonlelle, at the European Team Championship for Girls (under 18) in 2002, where she took team gold and individual silver on board 1. On another occasion at the 2007 Women's World Team Chess Championship in Yekaterinburg, she helped Ukraine to a bronze medal finish and added an individual bronze to her tally. She has also played twice at the European Team Championship, in 2005 and 2007. The team finished outside of the medal places each time, but for her personal performance, Ushenina took individual gold at the latter event, held in Heraklion, with 5/7.[4]

A very active league chess player, she regularly plays in the national leagues of France, Russia, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia.

Tournaments and titles

Tournament successes at Kiev in 2001 and Odessa in 2003, earned her the WGM title, awarded in 2003. Her Olympiad performance and subsequent results in Pardubice and Abu Dhabi (both 2006) then qualified her for the IM title, awarded in January 2007.

In the 'A2' section of the prestigious Aeroflot Open in Moscow 2007, she scored 5 points from the first 7 rounds, defeating three male grandmasters for a part performance rating of 2672. At the Women's European Individual Chess Championship, held 2008 in Plovdiv, she took the bronze medal, losing out 1-2 to Viktorija Cmilyte in a tie-break for silver. Playing at the Wijk aan Zee Corus 'C' (mixed) event of 2008, she found the standard very tough and finished towards the bottom of the Group, equal with Peng Zhaoqin on 4½/13. At the 2008 Moscow Open Women's event, run alongside the Aeroflot tournament, she took second place (after Anna Muzychuk, but ahead of Natalia Zhukova and Kateryna Lahno).[5]

In her spare time, she enjoys reading detective novels and listening to classical and pop music.

As of July 2008, Anna Ushenina had an Elo rating of 2476, placing her third behind Kateryna Lahno and Natalia Zhukova in the national listings and number 22 in the world among women.

Courtesy : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anna_Ushenina

Chess Ladies : Anna Zatonskih

Anna Zatonskih (born Mariupol, Ukraine, June 17, 1978) is a chess player from the United States, where as of April 1, 2007, she has the 23rd highest Elo rating on the FIDE list among women (2462). She is a Woman Grandmaster, as well as an International Master. She is a chess professional, who coaches players and competes in tournaments. She is the 2006 and 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Champion.

Zatonskih learned chess at age five from her parents, who are both strong players. Her father Vitaly is rated about 2300, while her mother is a Candidate Master. Anna won against her mother for the first time at age 14.

Anna won many Ukrainian Girls' titles in several age categories. She was awarded the WGM title in 1999. She twice won the Ukrainian Women's Chess Championship, in 2001 and 2002. She represented Ukraine in two Chess Olympiads: in 2000 at Istanbul, she scored 7/11 (+5 =4 -2) on board two; and in 2002 at Bled, she scored 3.5/7 (+2 =3 -2) on board three.

She represented the U.S. in the Chess Olympiads of 2004 and 2006. The Americans won the team silver in 2004, their highest finish ever. Zatonskih won the United States Women's Championship in 2006 and 2008.

Chess Ladies : Zehra Topel

WIM Zehra Topel won the 2007 Turkey Women Championship after already being three-times Turkish U18 champion. This talented and perspective player was born on April 1987 in Shumen, Bulgaria and at the age of 8 she started visiting local chess club in Shumen after her mother taught her how to move pieces.

The family moved to Istanbul, Turkey on 1997 and on 2000 they were granted Turkish citizenship. Currently, Zehra is studying 2nd year of English Philology at the Istanbul University and she is member of the Istanbul Technical University chess club.

Chess Beautiful Women : Irina Krush

Irina Krush (b. December 24, 1983) is an American chess player and won U.S. Women's Chess Championship in 1998 and 2007.^[1] Born in Odessa, USSR (now Ukraine), she is widely known for her series of chess training videos, the "Krushing Attacks" series.

Krush learned to play chess at age five, emigrating with her parents to Brooklyn that same year (1989).

At age 14 Krush won the 1998 US Women's Chess Championship to become the youngest U.S. Women's Champion ever. She holds the title of International Master (IM) and has one of three tournament results (norms) necessary to qualify for the International Grandmaster (GM) title. On the April 2008 list, Krush has a FIDE Rating of 2479, 17th best among active female players^[2].

Krush gained a measure of fame both inside and outside chess circles during the well-publicized "Kasparov versus The World" chess competition in 1999. Garry Kasparov played the white pieces and the Internet public, via a Microsoft host website, voted on moves for the black pieces, guided by the recommendations of Krush and three of her contemporaries, Etienne Bacrot, Elisabeth Pähtz and Florin Felecan. On the tenth move, Krush suggested a novelty, for which the World Team voted. Kasparov said later that he lost control of the game at that point, and wasn't sure whether he was winning or losing.^{[citation needed]}

Krush currently plays for the New York Knights in the U.S. Chess League, and both she and her husband Canadian Grandmaster Pascal Charbonneau ^[1] have played in the United Kingdom league for Guildford-ADC. In 2006 they were students in Paris.

Chess Beautiful Ladies : Antoaneta Stefanova

Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgarian: Антоанета Стефанова) (born April 19, 1979) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster, and a former Women's World Chess Champion. She became the twelfth titleholder in 2004 in a 64-player knockout tournament held in Elista, Kalmykia under the auspices of FIDE. Stefanova's FIDE rating of 2538 on the April 2008 list placed 6th in the world among active female players.

Stefanova was born in Sofia, Bulgaria. Her chess-bound passion was inflamed when she was just four years old and she received first classes on the black-and-white chessboard by her own father, Andon Stefanov, himself a designing artist. With her elder sister, Liana, Antoaneta had made her best mating tandem.

* At the age of seven, Stefanova became a Sofia champion.
* In 1989, Stefanova swept the world chess crown for kids in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico and later the same year triumphed in the under-14 Czech championship.
* Since 1994, Stefanova has successively competed in grandmaster championships, taking even seventh among male nationals in 1993.
* In 1997 Stefanova's FIDE rating broke into the top ten of women worldwide. Also she earned the title of Grandmaster in June 2003, a title held by only ten other women.
* She has played for Bulgaria in five Chess Olympiads so far, starting in Manila, the Philippines, when just 13.
* In 2000, her coach promoted her in the Bulgarian men's team for the Istanbul Olympiad.

"Sexy, self-confident, sociable ... can we be talking about a professional chess player? Yes, we can," says Pergammon Chess where her photo was on the cover.


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Chess BeautifulLadies : Almira Skripchenko

Almira Skripchenko (born 17 February 1976) is a French chess player who has achieved the FIDE Woman Grandmaster title. She won the second European Open Women's Chess Championship in 2001.

She was born in Kishinev (today Chişinău, Moldova). The daughter of pedagogues, both chess coaches, Skripchenko started playing chess when she was 6 years old.

In 1991, Moldova became independent from the Soviet Union. This meant that Skripchenko could take part for the first time in the World Youth Chess Championships. She was soon crowned champion at Under-16 level (1992, Duisburg, Germany) and in 1993, took the bronze at Under-18.

She married French Grandmaster Joel Lautier in 1997 and consequently moved to live in France. Despite separating from Lautier in 2003, she became a French citizen in 2001 and continued to make France her home. Skripchenko then married French Grandmaster Laurent Fressinet and in January 2007, gave birth to a daughter.

In 2001, at 25 years old, she celebrated her biggest success ever, winning the individual ladies European championship. She was at this time chosen "best sportsperson in 2001 in Moldova" and decorated with the Order of National Merit in her native country.

In 2004 she won the North Urals Cup, the second international super-tournament for female chess players. Held in Krasnoturinsk, the 9-round single round robin tournament featured ten of the strongest female players in the world. Skripchenko finished a half point ahead of Maia Chiburdanidze, the former Women's World Champion, and also defeated her in their individual encounter.

Living in Paris and representing France in tournaments since 2002, Skripchenko has become a noted ambassador for the game in Europe. She was the first woman to have competed in the Men's French Individual Championship (2002, 2003). In 2004, 2005 and 2006, she also won the Ladies' French Chess Championship. In team play, she won the French Nationale Chess League with celebrated club side NAO Chess Club (2003, 2004) and the German Chess Bundesliga with Werder Bremen (2005). Her career victories also include three Nationale ladies titles which she earned with Baden-Oos in 2003, 2004, and 2005.

Almira Skripchenko has taken part in several Chess Olympiads (with Moldova, then with France), each time playing on her team's top board. She is also a member of the ACP Board (Association of Chess Players).

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Chess Beautiful Ladies : Alexandra Kosteniuk

Alexandra Kostantinovna Kosteniuk (Александра Костенюк) (born April 23, 1984 in Perm, Volga Federal District) is a Russian chess Grandmaster with a FIDE rating of 2515. Her most notable chess achievements include: Becoming female European champion in 2004 by winning the tournament in Dresden, Germany. And in August 2006 she became the first Chess960 (Fischer Random) women world champion after beating Germany's top female player Elisabeth Pähtz 5.5-2.5.

In November 2004, she achieved the International Grandmaster title, becoming the tenth of the eleven women who have received the highest title awarded by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). She also holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master. She is sixth on the October 2007 FIDE women Elo rating list with a rating of 2515. Kosteniuk won the 2005 Russian Women's Championship, held from May 14 to 26 in Samara, Russia, finishing with a score of +7 =4 -0.

Kosteniuk's mottos have been "chess is cool" and "beauty and intelligence can go together". With these as a backdrop, Kosteniuk has been promoting chess in the capacity of a fashion model and ambassador of chess in order to spark interest in the game around the world.

She is also the host of a popular podcast "Chess is Cool" which informs listeners about Alexandra's life and current chess events.

Alexandra learned to play chess at the age of five after being taught by her father. She also has a little sister named Oxana Kosteniuk, who is a master level chess player.

Kosteniuk is married to Swiss-born Diego Garces, who is of Colombian descent, and 25 years her elder.On April 22, 2007 Alexandra gave birth to a daughter, Francesca Maria. Francesca was born 2 1/2 months premature, but after an 8 week stay in the hospital, has since made full recovery. Alexandra's website, which is maintained by her husband, covers the chess events she is participating in and offers up to date information about her.

Alexandra Kosteniuk Album